After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher was determined to reverse what she perceived as a precipitous national decline.[nb 1] Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation, particularly of the financial sector, flexible labour markets, the sale or closure of state-owned companies, and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. Thatcher's popularity waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support resulting in her re-election in 1983.

Early life and education

Margaret Thatcher's birthplace, in Grantham

Commemorative plaque on the building in which Margaret Thatcher was born

Margaret Roberts was born on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire.[3] She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.[4] She and her older sister Muriel were raised in the flat above the larger of the two, located near the railway line.[4] Her father was active in local politics and religion, serving as an alderman and a Methodist local preacher,[5] and brought up his daughter as a strict Methodist.[6] He came from a Liberal family but stood – as was then customary in local government – as an Independent. He was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.[5]

After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics.[19] She joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.[20] One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates.[20] Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the Conservative party's approved list: she was selected in January 1951 and added to the approved list post ante.[21] At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1951 she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy divorced businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.[20][21] In preparation for the election Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream.[20][22]

Early political career

In the February 1950 and October 1951 general elections she campaigned for the safe Labour seat of Dartford, where she attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate.[23][24] She lost both times to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000.[23] During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951.[23][25] Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar;[26] she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation.[27] That same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were born.[28]

At the Conservative Party Conference of 1966 she criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism".[32] She argued that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.[32] Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality[33] and voted in favour of David Steel's Bill to legalise abortion,[1][34] as well as a ban on hare coursing.[35][36] She supported the retention of capital punishment[37] and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.[38][39]

Education Secretary (1970–1974)

The Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. In her first months in office she attracted public attention as a result of the administration's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools,[42] and imposed public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven.[43] She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, but she agreed to provide younger children with a third of a pint daily, for nutritional purposes.[43] Her decision provoked a storm of protest from the Labour party and the press,[44] and led to the moniker "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".[43] Thatcher wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."[44][45]

Thatcher's term of office was marked by proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although she was committed to a tiered secondary modern–grammar school system of education, and determined to preserve grammar schools,[42] during her tenure as Education Secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensives rose from 32% to 62%.[46]

Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)

The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, and was defeated in the February 1974 general election.[44] The Conservative result in the general election of October 1974 was even worse, and Thatcher mounted a challenge for the leadership of the party.[47] Promising a fresh start, her main support came from the Conservative 1922 Committee.[47] She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership.[48] In the second ballot she defeated Heath's preferred successor, William Whitelaw, and became party leader on 11 February 1975;[49] she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath remained disenchanted with Thatcher to the end of his life for what he, and many of his supporters, perceived as her disloyalty in standing against him.[50]

Thatcher began regularly to attend lunches at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by the poultry magnate Antony Fisher, a disciple of Friedrich von Hayek; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and she became the face of the ideological movement opposing the welfare state Keynesian economics they believed was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.[51][page needed]

Thatcher began to work on her voice and screen image.[citation needed] The critic Clive James, writing in The Observer in 1977, compared her voice of 1973 to a cat sliding down a blackboard, but acknowledged her intelligence and mental agility.[nb 2]

On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union:

The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.[52]

In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) gave her the nickname "Iron Lady".[52] She took delight in the name, and it soon became associated with her image.

Despite an economic recovery in the late 1970s, the Labour government faced public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, popularly dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan Labour Isn't Working. A general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister.

Prime Minister (1979–1990)

Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she said, in a paraphrase of the "Prayer of Saint Francis":

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

Domestic affairs

Thatcher was Prime Minister at a time of great racial tension in Britain. Her standing in the polls rose by 11 percent after she said in a TV interview during campaigning for the 1979 election: "The moment a minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened. The British character has done so much for democracy, for law, that if there is any fear that it might be swamped, people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in".[53] The Conservatives attracted voters from the National Front, whose support almost collapsed.[54][55]The Economist noted "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties, specifically the National Front, which suffered a clear decline".[56][57] In confidential official documents she objected to the number of Asian immigrants in July 1979,[58] in the context of limiting the number of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK. Her stance on these issues was perceived as part of a rising racist public discourse, which professor Martin Barker called "new racism".[59]

As Prime Minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under close scrutiny.[60][61] In July 1986 the Sunday Times reported claims attributed to the Queen's advisers of a "rift" between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street "over a wide range of domestic and international issues".[62][63] The Palace issued an official denial, heading off speculation about a possible constitutional crisis.[63] After Thatcher's retirement a senior Palace source again dismissed as "nonsense" the "stereotyped idea" that she had not got along with the Queen, or that they had fallen out over Thatcherite policies.[64] Thatcher later wrote "... I always found the Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct ... .stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up."[65]

Economy and taxation

Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek.[66] Together with Chancellor of the ExchequerGeoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes.[67] She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thereby lower inflation,[66] introduced cash limits on public spending, and reduced expenditures on social services such as education and housing.[67] Her cuts in higher education spending resulted in her being the first Oxford-educated post-war Prime Minister not to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oxford, after a 738 to 319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition.[68] Her new centrally-funded City Technology Colleges did not enjoy much success, and the Funding Agency for Schools was set up to control expenditure by opening and closing schools; the Social Market Foundation, a right-wing think tank, described it as having "an extraordinary range of dictatorial powers".[69]

Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies.[72] The 1981 riots in England resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly, with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar[73] that included the lines: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"[72]

Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23% by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous Prime Minister.[74] As the recession of the early 1980s deepened she increased taxes,[75] despite concerns expressed in a statement signed by 364 leading economists issued towards the end of March 1981.[76]

By 1982 the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery;[77] inflation was down to 8.6% from a high of 18%, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.[78] By 1983 overall economic growth was stronger and inflation and mortgage rates were at their lowest levels since 1970, although manufacturing output had dropped by 30% since 1978[79] and unemployment remained high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984.[80]

By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong, and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term.[81]

Throughout the 1980s revenue from the 90% tax on North Sea oil extraction was used as a short-term funding source to balance the economy and pay the costs of reform.[82]

Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates—a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home—with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident.[83] The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year,[84] and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership.[83] Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000-strong demonstration in London on 31 March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into the Poll Tax Riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest.[85] The Community Charge was abolished by her successor, John Major.[85]

Foreign affairs

The Thatchers with the Reagans standing at the North Portico of the White House before a state dinner, 16 November 1988

Thatcher took office in the final decade of the Cold War and became closely aligned with the policies of United States President Ronald Reagan, based on their mutual distrust of Communism,[86] although she strongly opposed Reagan's October 1983 invasion of Grenada.[87] During her first year as Prime Minister she supported NATO's decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing missiles in Western Europe,[86] and permitted the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting on 14 November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[86] She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK's nuclear forces[88] at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices).[89] Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of January 1986, when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management's preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. The UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned in protest.[90]

On 2 April 1982 the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War.[91] The subsequent crisis was "a defining moment of her [Thatcher's] premiership".[92] At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong,[92] she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to take charge of the conduct of the war,[93] which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.[94] Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders. Argentinian deaths totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the cruiser ARA General Belgrano on 2 May.[95] Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and notably by Tam Dalyell in parliament for the decision to sink the Belgrano, but overall she was considered a highly talented and committed war leader.[96] The "Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided Labour opposition contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983.[97]

Thatcher's antipathy towards European integration became more pronounced during her premiership, particularly after her third election victory in 1987. During a 1988 speech in Bruges she outlined her opposition to proposals from the European Community (EC), forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision making.[101] She had supported British membership of the EC, despite believing that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EC's approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation;[102] in 1988, she remarked, "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels".[102] Thatcher was firmly opposed to the UK's membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to European monetary union, believing that it would constrain the British economy,[103] despite the urging of her Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe,[104] but she was persuaded by John Major to join in October 1990, at what proved to be too high a rate.[105]

In April 1986, Thatcher permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque,[106] citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.[107][nb 3] Polls suggested that less than one in three British citizens approved of Thatcher's decision.[109] She was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990.[110] During her talks with US President George H. W. Bush, who had succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention,[110] and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.[111] Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation that "This was no time to go wobbly!"[112] Thatcher's government provided military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991.

Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "We're not in a Cold War now", but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was".[113] She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984, and met with Gorbachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.[114] Thatcher was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that it "would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO.[115] In contrast she was an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence.[116] In a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, Thatcher commented on the Yugoslav Wars; she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent states and supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked.[117]

Industrial relations

Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action.[118] Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to curb their power, but resistance eventually collapsed.[86] Only 39% of union members voted for Labour in the 1983 general election.[119] According to the BBC, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation".[120]

The miners' strike was the biggest confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government. In March 1984 the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000.[121][122][123] Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, downed tools in protest.[121][124][125] Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands conflict two years earlier, declaring in a speech in 1984: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."[126] After a year out on strike, in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar.[127] The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 had been closed;[123] those that remained were privatised in 1994.[128] The eventual closure of 150 coal mines, not all of which were losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and devastated entire communities.[123][129] Miners had helped bring down the Heath government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing a union-busting NCB leader in Ian MacGregor, and ensuring police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear, contributed to her victory.[130]

The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days were lost. In 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were 1221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher's premiership; in 1990 there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter.[131] Trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to less than 10 million by the time Thatcher left office in 1990.[132]

Privatisation

The policy of privatisation has been called "a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism".[133] After the 1983 election the sale of state utilities accelerated;[134] more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses.[135]

The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity.[136] A number of the privatised industries including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement often did so while still under state ownership. British Steel, for instance, made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed chairmanship of Ian MacGregor, who faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and reduce the workforce by half.[137] Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies like Ofgas, Oftel and the National Rivers Authority.[138] There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries;[136] in most cases privatisation benefitted consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency, but the results overall were "mixed".[139]

Thatcher always resisted rail privatisation, and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley "Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again." Shortly before her resignation, she accepted the arguments for privatising British Rail, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994.[140]The Economist later considered the move to have been "a disaster".[139]

The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation in an attempt to fuel economic growth. Geoffrey Howe abolished Britain's exchange controls in 1979, allowing more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange. The Thatcher government encouraged growth in the finance and service sectors to compensate for Britain's ailing manufacturing industry. Political economist Susan Strange called this new financial growth model "casino capitalism", reflecting her view that speculation and financial trading were becoming more important to the economy than industry.[141]

Northern Ireland

In 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison began a hunger strike in an effort to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed five years earlier under the preceding Labour government.[142]Bobby Sands began the strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions.[142] Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, declaring "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political",[142] but nevertheless the UK government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end.[143] After the deaths of Sands and nine others some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of their political status.[144] Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes; in 1982 Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison described Thatcher as "the biggest bastard we have ever known".[145]

Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in a PIRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984.[146] Five people were killed, including the wife of Cabinet Minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to attend the Conservative Party Conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.[146] She delivered her speech as planned,[147] a move that was widely supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.[148]

On 6 November 1981 Thatcher and Irish TaoiseachGarret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.[144] On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest the Ulster Says No movement attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,[149]Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury,[150][151] and all fifteen Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.[152]

Resignation

Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by virtually unknown backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer in the 1989 leadership election.[153] Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer.[153] Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success, and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.[153]

During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating, at 40 percent, of any post-war Prime Minister. Polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party.[154] A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings, pointing instead to her unbeaten election record.[155]

Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives,[156] and by November the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months.[154] These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and willingness to override colleagues' opinions, contributed to discontent within the Conservative party.[157]

On 1 November 1990 Geoffrey Howe, the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister over her refusal to agree to a timetable for Britain to join the European single currency.[156][158] In his resignation speech on 13 November, Howe commented on Thatcher's European stance: "It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."[159] His resignation was fatal to Thatcher's premiership.[160]

The next day, Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party.[161] Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour.[162] Although Thatcher won the first ballot, Heseltine attracted sufficient support (152 votes) to force a second ballot.[163] Thatcher initially stated that she intended to "fight on and fight to win" the second ballot, but consultation with her Cabinet persuaded her to withdraw.[157][163][164] After seeing the Queen, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech, she left Downing Street in tears. She regarded her ousting as a betrayal.[165]

Thatcher was replaced as Prime Minister and party leader by her Chancellor John Major, who oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading up to the 1992 general election and led the Conservatives to their fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992.[166] Thatcher favoured Major over Heseltine in the leadership contest, but her support for him weakened in later years.[167]

Later years

Thatcher returned to the backbenches as MP for Finchley for two years after leaving the premiership.[168] She retired from the House at the 1992 election, aged 66, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.[169]

Post-Commons

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher became the first former Prime Minister to set up a foundation; it closed down in 2005 because of financial difficulties.[170] She wrote two volumes of memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995).

In July 1992, Thatcher was hired by the tobacco company Philip Morris as a "geopolitical consultant" for $250,000 per year and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation.[171] She also earned $50,000 for each speech she delivered.[172]

In August 1992, Thatcher called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo to end ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War. She compared the situation in Bosnia to "the worst excesses of the Nazis", and warned that there could be a "holocaust".[173] She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty,[169] describing it as "a treaty too far" and stated "I could never have signed this treaty".[174] She cited A. V. Dicey when stating that as all three main parties were in favour of revisiting the treaty, the people should have their say.[175]

Thatcher was honorary Chancellor of the College of William and Mary in Virginia (1993–2000)[176] and also of the University of Buckingham (1992–1999), the UK's first private university, which she had opened in 1975.[177]

In 1998, Thatcher called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain had him arrested and sought to try him for human rights violations, citing the help he gave Britain during the Falklands War.[179] In 1999, she visited him while he was under house arrest near London.[180] Pinochet was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw, without facing trial.[181]

In March 2002, Thatcher's book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, dedicated to Ronald Reagan, was released. In it, she claimed there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam Hussein was toppled, that Israel must trade land for peace, and that the European Union (EU) was "fundamentally unreformable", "a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure". She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area. The book was serialised in The Times on 18 March; on 23 March she announced that on the advice of her doctors she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more.[183]

Since 2003

Sir Denis Thatcher died on 26 June 2003 and was cremated on 3 July.[184] She had paid tribute to him in The Downing Street Years, writing "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: you cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend".[185]

On 11 June 2004, Thatcher attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan.[186] She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier.[187] Thatcher then flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.[188]

Thatcher attends the Washington memorial service marking the 5th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, pictured with Dick Cheney and his wife

Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London, on 13 October 2005, at which the guests included the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair.[189] Geoffrey Howe, by then Lord Howe of Aberavon, was also present, and said of his former leader: "Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible."[190]

In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. She was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney, and met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit.[191]

In February 2007, Thatcher became the first living UK Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of her political hero, Sir Winston Churchill,[192] and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she made a rare and brief speech in the members' lobby of the House of Commons, responding: "I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do ... It won't rust."[192] The statue shows her addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched.[193]

Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by the artist Richard Stone,[194] an unusual honour for a living ex-Prime Minister.[195] Stone had previously painted portraits of the Queen and the Queen Mother.[194]

Thatcher suffered several small strokes in 2002 and was advised by her doctors not to engage in any more public speaking.[196] After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, she was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests.[197] Her daughter Carol has recounted ongoing memory loss.[198]

She is a public supporter of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the resulting Prague Process, and sent a public letter of support to its preceding conference.[199]

At the Conservative Party conference in 2010, the new Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he would invite Thatcher back to 10 Downing Street on her 85th birthday for a party to be attended by past and present ministers. She pulled out of the celebration because of flu.[200][201] She was invited to the Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011 but did not attend, reportedly due to ill health.[202]

On American Independence Day 2011 (4 July) Lady Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a 10-foot statue to former American President Ronald Reagan, outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London but was unable to attend due to frail health.[203] On 31 July 2011 it was announced that the former prime minister's office in the House of Lords had been closed down.[204]

Also in July 2011, Thatcher was named the most competent British Prime Minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos Mori poll.[205]

In September 2011, Lady Thatcher attended the 50th birthday party of the Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, at his apartment in Admiralty House; Dr Fox commented "it was great having two Prime Ministers at my 50th birthday party this evening".[206]

Thatcher remains identified with her remarks to the reporter Douglas Keay, for Woman's Own magazine in September 1987:

I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.[207]

To her supporters, Margaret Thatcher remains a figure who revitalised Britain's economy, impacted the trade unions, and re-established the nation as a world power.[208] She oversaw an increase from 7% to 25% of adults owning shares, and more than a million families bought their council houses, giving an increase from 55% to 67% in owner-occupiers. Total personal wealth rose by 80%.[209] Victory in the Falklands conflict and her strong alliance with the United States are also remembered as some of her greatest achievements.[210]

Thatcher's premiership was also marked by high unemployment and social unrest,[208] and many critics fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by high unemployment as a result of her monetarist economic policies[211][not in citation given]have still not fully recovered and are also blighted by social problems including drug abuse and family breakdown.[212] Speaking in Scotland in April 2009, before the 30th anniversary of her election as Prime Minister, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets, and was right to introduce the poll tax and to remove subsidies from "outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline" which had created "the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain".[213]

Thatcher often referred after the war to the "Falklands Spirit"; Hastings and Jenkins (1983) suggested that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peace-time cabinet government.[214]

Critics have regretted Thatcher's influence in the abandonment of full employment, poverty reduction and a consensual civility as bedrock policy objectives. Many recent biographers have been critical of aspects of the Thatcher years and Michael White, writing in New Statesman in February 2009, challenged the view that her reforms had brought a net benefit.[215] Despite being Britain's first woman Prime Minister, some critics contend Thatcher did "little to advance the political cause of women",[216] either within her party or the government, and some British feminists regarded her as "an enemy".[217]

The term "Thatcherism" came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, interest in the individual, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals.[nb 4]. Influenced at the outset by Keith Joseph,[218] Thatcherism remains a potent byword in British political parlance, with both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown defining policies in post-Thatcherite terms, and David Cameron saying after a dinner with Thatcher in February 2009: "You have got to do the right thing even if it is painful. Don't trim or track all over the place. Set your course and take the difficult decisions because that is what needs to be done ... I think that influence, that character she had, that conviction she had, I think that will be very important."[219]

Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as Prime Minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury (13 years and 252 days in three spells starting in 1885), and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool (14 years and 305 days starting in 1812).[220][221][222]

Honours

Thatcher became a Privy Councillor (PC) upon becoming Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970.[223] She was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) (an order within the personal gift of the Queen) within two weeks of leaving office. Denis Thatcher was made a Baronet at the same time.[224] She became a peer in the House of Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire.[169][225] She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, the UK's highest order of chivalry, in 1995.[226]

She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983,[22] and was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.[227]

In the Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked every 10 January since 1992,[228] commemorating her visit in 1983.[229][230] Thatcher Drive in Stanley is named for her, as is Thatcher Peninsula in South Georgia, where the task force troops first set foot on the Falklands.[228]

Thatcher has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour awarded by the US; the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom; and the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award. She is a patron of the Heritage Foundation,[231] which established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in 2005.[232] Speaking of Heritage president Ed Feulner, at the first Clare Booth Luce lecture in September 1993, Thatcher said: "You didn't just advise President Reagan on what he should do; you told him how he could do it. And as a practising politician I can testify that that is the only advice worth having."[233]
Other awards include Dame Grand Cross of the Croatian Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir.[234]

A statue of her likeness sits on the Hillsdale College campus in Hillsdale, MI, both in honor of her role as a speaker there in March 1995 [235] and her continued support of the college and its emphasis on the Western tradition. It remains the first and only statue of the former Prime Minister within the United States [236]

Thatcher was lampooned by satirist John Wells in several media. Wells collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters which ran as a column in Private Eye magazine, were published in book form, and were then adapted into a West End stage revue as Anyone for Denis?, starring Wells as Denis Thatcher. The stage show was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement.[239] In 1979, Wells was commissioned by comedy producer Martin Lewis to write and perform on a comedy record album titled Iron Lady: The Coming Of The Leader on which Thatcher was portrayed by comedienne and noted Thatcher impersonator Janet Brown. The album consisted of skits and songs satirising Thatcher's rise to power.

In Spitting Image, Thatcher was portrayed as a bullying tyrant, wearing trousers, and ridiculing her own ministers.[240]

References

Notes

^ In her foreword to the 1979 Conservative manifesto, Thatcher wrote of "a feeling of helplessness, that a once great nation has somehow fallen behind".[2]

^ "The hang-up has always been the voice. Not the timbre so much as, well, the tone—the condescending explanatory whine which treats the squirming interlocutor as an eight-year-old child with learning deficiencies. News Extra rolled a clip from May 1973 demonstrating the Thatcher sneer at full pitch. She sounded like a cat sliding down a blackboard ... She's cold, hard, quick and superior, and smart enough to know that those qualities could work for her instead of against." James 1977, pp. 119–120

^ Speaking to the House of Commons, Thatcher stated that "the United States has more than 330,000 members of her forces in Europe to defend our liberty. Because they are here, they are subject to terrorist attack. It is inconceivable that they should be refused the right to use American aircraft and American pilots in the inherent right of self-defence, to defend their own people."[108]

^ "Who was it who first removed the seat belts and airbags from the safe-but-boring Volvo that the West built after 1945? 'Her freer, more promiscuous version of capitalism' in Hugo Young's phrase is reaping a darker harvest." Michael White "The Making of Maggie" New Statesman 26 February 2009

Margaret Thatcher (disambiguation) — Margaret Thatcher is a former British Prime Minister who was in office from 1979 to 1990. Margaret Thatcher may also refer to one of the following; Inspector Margaret Thatcher (Due South), a character in the television series Due South The… … Wikipedia